Mini Monday: A Mini Valentine's Day

I don't know about you, but I think there's something so romantic about sharing dessert with someone you love.  And, for some reason sharing an Italian dessert is extra romantic.  Maybe because Italian is the language of love.  Maybe it's because you can pretend you're in Venice on a moonlit gondola ride.  Either way, Valentine's Day is the perfect time to make a delicious dessert that's just big enough to share with the one you love.  Plus, if you stay at home and make it yourself you don't have to deal with all the crowds at the fancy restaurants.  And if you feel like getting a little "romantic", well you're in the privacy of your own home.  Go right ahead.

If all of that sounds good to you, then you're going to love this recipe for tiramisu.  This recipe is for a full 9x11 pan of tiramisu, but for Valentine's Day making it into a heart shape big enough for two to share takes a delicious dessert and "kicks it up another notch," to borrow a phrase from Emeril.  

 Valentine's Day Tiramisu

(adapted from Jessica Lynn Writes)

What you need:

1 1/4 cup strongly brewed coffee (room temperature)

5 T Kahlua

Lady fingers (about 30)

3 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 T vanilla

16 oz marscapone

6 T cold heavy (whipping) cream

Cocoa

Cinnamon

What you do:

Mix coffee and 3 T Kahlua in a shallow bowl and set aside.  

In a large bowl, beat egg yolks at a low speed until just combined.  Add sugar and salt and beat at medium-high speed until it becomes pale yellow.  Next mix in the remaining 2 T Kahlua along with the vanilla.  Then add about two-thirds of the marscapone and mix until well combined and there are no lumps.  

Now, this is wear my version of the recipe differs.  The original recipe calls for raw eggs.  If I bought high-quality farm fresh eggs, I'd probably be fine with keeping the eggs raw but I buy my eggs from Walmart.  I'd rather be safe than sorry.  If you're fine with using raw eggs go ahead and feel free to skip this next step.  Anyway, transfer the egg and marscapone mixture to a glass bowl and cook over a double boiler.  Make sure you whisk the mixture the entire time, we're not trying to make scrambled eggs here.  The objective is to heat the mixture up enough to get the "rawness" off the eggs.  You'll know it's done with the mixture kind of "breaks" and thins out.  Once that happens, remove it from the heat and put it in the fridge to let it cool.  Once it's cool transfer it back to the mixing bowl and mix in the rest of the marscapone.  Once it's mixed smooth, transfer it back to the glass bowl.

If you're keeping the eggs raw, join back up with me here.  Pour the cream in the mixing bowl (don't worry about cleaning it out), and mix on high until it will hold stiff peaks.  Gently fold about 1/3 of the whipped cream into the marscapone mixture using a rubber spatula.  Then fold in the rest until there are no white streaks in the mixture.  

And now it's time to assemble the tiramisu.  Take a heart shaped cookie cutter and place it on a plate.  Take lady fingers one at the time and drop them in the coffee/kahlua mixture, quickly flip them over then remove from the coffee.  This whole process should take 2-3 seconds.  You don't want them soaked, just damped.  Place lady fingers in the cookie cutter in one layer, breaking up the lady fingers as necessary.  Next put a big scoop of the marscapone mixture on top of the lady fingers and spread it out.  Next sprinkle some cinnamon on top of the marscapone mixture, and then sift a layer of cocoa on top of that.  Put down another layer of lady fingers, then carefully remove the cookie cutter.  Next, put another layer of marscapone.  Top with some more cinnamon and a thick dusting of cocoa (enough to cover the whole top of the heart).  Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

If you want to make a pan of tiramisu, you basically do the same exact thing as above, except you lay the lady fingers in a layer on the bottom of the pan and build up from there.

Happy Valentine's Day

Mini Mondays: Mini Peach and Blackberry Cobbler

When I was growing up we had a few blackberry bushes in our backyard that produced the biggest, most delicious blackberries I've ever had.  We would have fresh blackberries all summer, and then we'd have enough to freeze and enjoy them for the rest of year until summer rolled around again.  The first summer we had the blackberry bushes my mom made what has become one of my favorite desserts; blackberry cobbler.  Her cobbler is actually more of a crisp (oatmeal, flour, brown sugar and butter topping) although I didn't find this out until I was in college and I took a food and culture class for the honors program.  For part of the class we had to split up into groups and each group cooked dinner for the entire class one night and we all got comment cards to "critique" the food.  When it was my group's turn to make dinner I made my mom's blackberry cobbler.  When I got the comments back from the professor there were a lot of "This is good, but it's not a cobbler."  Well.... okay, sue me.  That's what we call cobbler in my family. We're not from the south; cobbler is a fruit dessert with a sweet topping.  

Oh well, lesson learned.  I still love my mom's "cobbler" and that's my go to summer dessert.  But that's not what we're here to talk about today (but don't worry, we will talk about it one day).  This is recipe is for "real" cobbler.  These are perfectly portioned in single servings but good luck trying to stop at one.  You could make this with any kind of fruit you want.  I made some with blackberries, some with peaches and then I went a little crazy and made some with both because I think peaches and blackberries go together like peas and carrots.  

Mini Peach and Blackberry Cobbler

What you need:

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

Dash of salt

3/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Brown sugar

Cinnamon

1/2 stick melted butter

Diced peaches

Blackberries (fresh or frozen, just make sure they're thawed)

What you do:

Sprinkle some cinnamon over the fruit and set aside and preheat your oven to 350*.  Meanwhile mix together the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and milk.  Add in the vanilla and about 1 tsp of cinnamon.

Put one teaspoon of melted butter in the bottom of each muffin tin.  I made half with muffin liners and half without and they both turned out great.  If you need to transport these somewhere I would definitely suggest using the muffin liners though.  Then spoon in two tablespoons of the batter on top of the melted butter. 

Next, put some fruit in top of the batter.  I put 4-5 diced peaches or 3-4 blackberries in each tin.

Sprinkle some brown sugar and cinnamon on top of the fruit.  Bake for 20 minutes.  

Let the cobbler that isn't in the muffin liners cool almost completely in the pan before removing them.  Before you take them out run a knife along the edge to loose them then use a spoon to help lift them out of the pan. 

Of course, a cobbler isn't really a cobbler without a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top to go with it. 

I think you're technically supposed to serve cobbler with the fruit on the bottom, but I think it looked so much prettier with the fruit on the top so you could really see the colors. 

Reindeer Cake Pops

A few weeks ago, I made some cake balls for a coworkers birthday.  I actually made them by accident; I was planning on making an oreo bundt cake but I got impatient and tried to take the cake out of the pan too early and it fell apart.  Instead of scrapping the whole thing I decided I'd just make cake balls because I happened to have some chocolate almond bark in the freezer from a chocolate covered strawberries project a long time ago.  The girls at work became, in a word, obsessed with them.  So when we decided to do a little cookie exchange at work for the holidays they demanded requested the oreo cake balls again.  Not one to disappoint, I obliged them but changed it up a little bit.  I mean, it was a holiday cookie exchange, I had to make them festive.  Right?  So, I decided to decorate them like reindeer.  I personally think they are adorable and I hope you agree.

Reindeer Cake Pops

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What you need:

1 box cake mix (I used yellow cake mix)

Oil, water, eggs (whatever the cake mix calls for)

Oreos (I used about 1 row of the double stuffed oreos, chopped)

1 package pudding mix

2/3rds can icing (I used cream cheese)

Chocolate candy melts

Lollipop sticks

Candy eyes

Mini Pretzels

M&Ms 

Edible ink pen

What you do:

Bake your cake according to the instructions on the back of the box, but ad the pudding and oreos to the mix.  Make sure to chop the oreos up pretty finely because you are going to want a smooth ball for the cake pop.  Once the cake has baked and cooled (you can put it in the fridge to expedite the process) place it in a bowl and use your hands to crumble it up.  Make sure that it's crumbled up very finely.  Next, mix in the icing using your hands.  Yep, it's time to get messy, y'all.  You really only need 2/3rds of the can of icing or else it will get too mushy.  You want the consistency to still look kind of crumbly, but you should be able to roll it into a smooth ball and have it stay together.

To form the balls I first scoop out the "dough" using a cookie scoop.  That ensure that they are all the same size, and that they aren't too big or small for the lollipop sticks.

After you scoop out the dough you'll want to roll them into balls.  Make sure you wash your hands occasionally or else they will get super sticky and you won't be able to make the balls as smooth as they should be.  They need to be smooth so you can get a nice even layer of chocolate coating.

After you've rolled the cake balls pop in the freezer for about 20 minutes and melt a little bit of the candy melts.  Pull the balls out the freezer.  Dip the end of a lollipop stick in the melted chocolate and insert it in the cake ball, about halfway through.  This will kind of seal the lollipop stick to the cake ball.  Once each cake ball has a lollipop stick in it, put them back in the freezer for another 20 minutes or so and melt the rest of the candy melts.  I like to melt mine in a cup because that makes it easier to just dip the cake pop into the chocolate and have it be completely covered.  If you use a shallow bowl you have to worry about twisting it and then it makes it more likely that you're cake ball will fall off the lollipop stick and then you're going to get really annoyed.  Believe me, I am saving you A LOT of frustration.

Pull the cake pops out of the freezer and let them sit for a few minutes to kind of take the chill off.  If you don't do this the candy coating will crack when you go to the put the little reindeer antlers in.  In the meantime, you can break the pretzels in half.  

Okay, now we're ready for the fun part.  You'll want to dip the cake pops into the chocolate coating, and let the excess chocolate drip off when you pull it out.  Working quickly before the coating hardens,  insert the antlers in to the top of pop.  Set them aside to fully dry in a styrofoam block or a cup.  To attach the eyes and nose just dab a tiny bit of the chocolate to the back of each and press them in place.  Use an edible ink pen to draw the mouth.  I bought a cheapo set at WalMart and I would highly recommend using another brand because mine did not draw very well on these.  But, they still worked out okay.

To finish them off, I placed them in a little clear treat bag and tied it off with some red ribbon.

These are probably some of my favorite things I have ever made.  They may be a little time intensive but I really think the end results are worth it.  In fact, I think I'll be making these for Christmas Eve with Cole's family.  

Cheesecake? Yes, please.

Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts.  It's so rich and decadent.  For a long time, pretty much the only time I would have cheesecake is on Thanksgiving when my dad and I would make chocolate cheesecake together.  Then Cole and I started dating and I think I made 5 different cheesecakes within the first 2 or 3 months of our relationship.  He says that's why he decided to keep me around.  Well, that and my charming personality.

Although, I love experimenting with cheesecakes and coming up with different flavors (such as a mint cheesecake with a brownie crust) I always go back to the traditional cheesecake.  I actually attempted to make this one semi healthy by using fat free cream cheese and light sour cream.

Cheesecake

What you need: 

For the crust:

2 cups finely crushed nilla wafers

4 T butter, melted

Filling:

1 1/2 lbs cream cheese

1 1/3 cups sugar

5 eggs

16 oz sour cream

1/4 cup flour

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp lemon juice

What you do:

Mix together the crushed nilla wafers and melted butter.  Press into buttered springform pan.  Try to line the sides as much as possible.  I love the crust, so my recipe actually doubles the crust from the original recipe.  Trust me on this.  Double crust is where it's at.

Preheat oven to 325*  Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy.  Add the sugar a little at a time and continue beating until creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Next add the flour, vanilla and lemon juice and mix well.  Add the sour cream last and beat well.  Pour the cream cheese into the springform pan.  Place on the top rack of the oven and cook for 1 hour 15 min.  When time is up, pop open the oven door and leave the cheesecake in the oven for 1 hour.  After 1 hour remove from oven and let the cheesecake cool to room temperature, then cover and put in the fridge to chill for at least 24 hours.  

I'm totally lame and forgot to take any other pictures of this cheesecake.  It turned out great though, only one little crack on the top.  Next time I make this I'll take a picture of the final product and update this post.  I have to make a cheesecake at least every couple of months to keep the boy around ;-)